Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention

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Penguin Books, 2012 - Biography & Autobiography - 592 pages

'Groundbreaking ... It will be difficult for anyone to better this book ... a work of art, a feast that combines genres skilfully: biography, true-crime, political commentary. It gives us Malcolm X in full gallop' Wil Haygood, Washington Post

'He was a country bumpkin who became a zoot-suited entertainer who became a petty criminal who became a self-taught intellectual ... In his revealing and prodigiously researched new biography, Marable vividly chronicles these many incarnations of Malcolm X, describing the "multiple masks" he donned over the years' Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

'Explodes the myths that obscure the real man' Hugh Muir, Guardian

'By the end of the 1960s, Malcolm's disciples had elevated him to what Manning Marable calls "secular sainthood" ... But Marable resists the temptation of hagiography and fills in the gaps left by previous books. He gives us Malcolm in all his self-contradiction and self-doubt' Yo Zushi, New Statesman

'Lucid, hugely researched and surely definitive ... an extraordinary story' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times

'Here at last is the meticulous portrait he deserves' Andrew Anthony, Observer

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About the author (2012)

Manning Marable was born in Dayton, Ohio on May 13, 1950. In 1968, he served as the local black newspaper's correspondent and marched along with thousands of others during the funeral procession for Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He received a bachelor's degree from Earlham College in Indiana, a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin and a doctorate from the University of Maryland. He wrote around 20 books during his lifetime including How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America, The Great Wells of Democracy: The Meaning of Race in American Life, Speaking Truth to Power: Essays on Race, Resistance and Radicalism, and Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention. He was a professor of African American studies, history, political science and public affairs at Columbia University. He died from complications of pneumonia on April 1, 2011 at the age of 60.